Popular Games Are Inherently Incapable Of Leading — So Why Must They?

On the topic of games the likes of GTAV and CoD: Ghosts and while so much of emphasis is placed on them innovating and leading the charge of doing things differently because they're popular, when they're popular because they don't change.

Quote: "Some games are going to be the same games, always. It’s because that’s what made them popular and that’s why they’ll stay popular. Sure, they’ll try some new things. Who knows? We might get a transexual playable character in one of the future DLC packs. But should we criticise a popular game for being popular by doing what is popular? "